Let bullets fly

After watching Let Bullets fly for three times, I wondered how much money did this earned. Then I was told that this film had reached a record 700 million yuan at the Chinese box office. I thought it could reach one billion yuan easily if the government did not take effort to block it. It occurred to me because Feng Xiaogang's tearjerker disaster epic Aftershock (2010) got about 500 million yuan which I thought is ridiculous and extremely stupid.

Set in the chaotic years after the collapse of imperial rule, Let The Bullets Fly tells the story of a Robin Hood-like bandit who kidnaps a con-man about to take up the mayorship he secured through bribes. The bandit swops identities with his hostage and become mayor, only to find himself locked in a battle of wits against a corrupt businessman who made his fortune from tobacco and human trafficking.

As Jiang Wen says in the movie, he wants to "earn money while standing upright" instead of kowtowing to authority. Is that Jiang the film-maker saying he wants to make movies without censoring himself? I do not know how this movie which is full of political criticism passed the strict censorship. But Jiang made it. He did not sacrifice his artistic and personal integrity to produce a commercial hit. Chinese directors known for their earlier, critical works, such as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, have come under fire for gravitating towards apolitical historical and gongfu epics that do not offend the government and meet growing market demand. Compared with them, Jiang has a more firm belief and he does not regard the cruel reality as the excuse to give up his ideas.

In 2000, his film Devils on the Doorstep, which won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, was banned in China. In an unpublished document that circulated in Beijing' film community at that time, censors branded the film unpatriotic. I think this time, Jiang made his film express his personal politic beliefs in a more hidden way.

Movie critics say there is more to the movie than meets the eyes. Perhaps, the con-man and businessman are symbols of corrupt Chinese officials who have secretly pocketed the fruits of the country' capitalist-style economic reforms.